Monday, April 04, 2005

I got to crawl through a B-17!

Hey everyone!

Last Friday, my family and I drove out to the airport and got to tour a B-17! It was really cool! I thought you would enjoy this picture of the plane. We got to look at the bomb bay, and stand in the top turrant. It was great to get to see this piece of living history. As we toured, we thought of the young men who flew this aircraft 50 or so years ago. This plane could hold 9 men. They included a pilot, co-pilot, bombider, navigator, and 5 gunners. This particular plane was armed with 12 machine guns for air to air combat and then 500 to 1000 pound bombs could be loaded into its large bomb bay. This plane was a big part of winning the war against Germany. With its ability to strike at targets far behind enemy lines, the B-17 was able to keep critical supplies from reaching the German front lines. However, early in its fighting career it was hampered by the lack of fighter support that could be provided by the allies. The allied fighter planes simply could not fly far enough to adequatly protect the bombers. The allies compensated by flying the bombers in large squadrons so that the bombers could support each other in aerial combat. This worked fairly well. Then later, the Mustang fighter was equiped with long rang gasoline tanks so the bombers could now have fighter support all the way to Germany and back! Anyway, without going into a complete history of World War II, *grin* I can say that I really enjoyed seeing this plane. I hope you are all having a great week!